A Total Blackout so Make Hay While the Sun Shines!

Happy New Year to everyone!  I was quite surprised to discover that almost a year has gone by since I last posted!  This has been quite the year with so many ups and downs for myself and my mom (who lives with me and I take care of).  She is now considered palliative as her heart continues to fail more each day.  We are still thankful for another year together and didn't think she would see her 91st birthday which we just celebrated this past week.

My own health has been slowly deteriorating for quite a few years with this past year being the worst.  After being referred to several specialists, a surgery (which led to the discovery of my sleep apnea) and lots of x-rays, scans, ultrasound and finally an MRI that finally led to my diagnosis of Fibromyalgia.  I am still going through a lot of emotions trying to process this news.  I have learned there is no cure but just finding ways to manage the pain in which I am currently waiting for a consult with a local pain clinic.

All I do know, for me right now, is that I will have to accept the fact that my life has slowed down a fair bit but I refuse to have it come to a grinding halt.  I have heard my parents and grandparents use the phrase "Make hay while the sun shines!" but now I understand the meaning.  I have good days and bad days that are total write-offs.  I have also learned that if something important needs to be done, leave it until a little later in the afternoon or evening when I am feeling a bit more normal.  I do have orders to fill that I need to work on so I have learned to take more advantage of the good days or times when I am struggling less.

So during those "good" days, I managed to fill a recent button order for Kelowna Yarn & Needlecrafts store.  They have a rich texture in jewel-tone colors.  Thank goodness for my Dream Machine (a huge oversize pasta-like machine) with a motor to help with my creating, as my hands would not be able to do this without it.

The colors are created using various mica powders or colored pigments.  I share lots of tips in several of my tutorials on how to work with these powders and achieve certain colors.  (Click on photo below for link).

I use a lot of black clay for the background, which helps makes the jewel-tone colors pop.  As I am using up most of my Kato clay (and in the process of changing to another clay brand), I realized I was running out of black.  I had heard about the new "Black-out" clay the Kato brand came out with and so decided to order some to try out.  With this Black-out clay, one is suppose to be able to tint any scrap clay into black.

I have to say that this stuff is so amazing and a real game changer!!!  I have plenty of scrap but an abundance of "mud" or brown.  I generally use this color as bead filler but one can only use so much of it.  You can see in the above photo the black clay on the left was created from the same brown clay on the right -- and I only used maybe 1/10 of the blackout for mixing.  It not only tints the clay but also makes a wonderful conditioner.  The brown was a little on the dry side but really soft and pliable after tinting.

I create a lot of items using this coloring textured technique such as our interchangeable jewelry snaps and buttons for sewing or knitting.  The stores we sell to have samples like these that are all numbered.  This way they can match the color samples with their fabric, or yarn to make it easier for ordering.  It also allows them to be creative as well in selecting the texture with the color to suit their project.

The bags shown above and below, for instance, are examples of the kits created by Fibre Expressions, a quilt shop in the Sunshine Coast of BC.  They put together amazing quilted bag kits which include one of our coordinating buttons.

And if you are just looking for buttons that I create, you will find a wide assortment in our online store in our Sew, Knit, Crochet Section.  Some of these are stocked or can be made to order.

Textured Flowers for Rearranging

These flowers are another type of texture we like to work with.  Each petal is individually sculpted, textured, colored with mica powder pigments to give the metallic jewel-tone colors and then arranged into a flower.  They have a special finding on the back to allow them to be interchanged and used in a variety of ways.  We are still working on more prototypes and getting everything in order for our spring shows coming up in April and May.

Here the three flowers are arranged in a necklace ...

The same flowers can be worn in other ways such as a single pendant ...

...  as a ring ...

... or on other findings like this hair clip ...

It can even be added to a large bail to wear on a scarf ...

We are still working on some bracelet designs as well as other accessories.

New Buttons

These are a few of our new button designs.  We have been working on some that are small (as you can see them in my hand), some that have bling and others with a vintage style.  The vintage ones are some of our faux stone or Turquoise set into a pretty metal frame.   These buttons will be for sale in the local yarn shops soon.

Small spiral buttons with shank

Textured Buttons with Swarovski crystals

Vintage Framed Button with Faux Stone / Turquoise centres

Vintage Style Jewel-tone Flowers

We have been making lots of "Vintage Flowers" in a variety of jewel-tone colors.  We create the flowers and bake them so they are ready to be used when needed.

The "vintage-like" centres are not metal but polymer clay.  They were created from a mould we made from a vintage button.  A Swarovski crystal is embedded into the centre and they are then accented with mica powders and baked.  We will generally make up a whole batch in different colors at a time so they are ready to use.

We like to use our vintage style flowers in various ways:

Shawl/Hair Sticks:

Brooch Stick Shawl Pins:

Scarf Charms:

  And Jewelry:

Button Production

We are in high production mode these days and taking advantage of the extra time this summer to get ahead in our fall store orders.

These "Starburst" buttons will be finished off with wire shanks for sewing on the back.  We like to use the bottoms of soda cans as a baking form which is what these are on here.  We have quite a few forms so we can bake large amounts at a time.  The texture we used to create the buttons was called "Fandango" by Helen Breil.

Starburst button fronts ready for baking

Starburst button fronts ready to add the wire shank for sewing

Concave Textured Buttons

These are some new buttons with a deep texture and concave shape.  They are quite large (2-1/4") and go great on a quilted or felted bag.  Both the round and the leaf design were created using a texture plate designed by my friend. Helen Breil, called Fandango which is one of my absolute favorites.  Mica and paint pigment powders are then applied to the raw textured clay before baking.

These buttons are our a few of our new styles for fall and are already making their way into many of the stores that sell our work.  We created some in custom colors to go with a new fabric line at The Sewing Basket in Salmon Arm.

Happy Canada Day!

Today is Canada Day and there will be plenty of celebrating across the country.  We will be making our way to the park at the beach in our little village to take in some of the live music and later on, enjoy the fireworks in the evening from our backyard.

It is tradition to wear our Canadian colors on this day which is red and white and that is what these pieces reminded me of.  Can you guess what they are for?

It is a tea towel holder for our kitchen to hang on the stove handle.

I've been wanting to make myself one of these for some time now and this is one of my first prototypes.  Some of the ideas I come up with are basically stemmed from something I would like for myself.  We also had some of the quilt stores ask for ideas on ways to use some of our buttons such as this tea cup one.

The ring that I made is basically a bangle bracelet that was textured with Helen Breil's "Conga Line" texture sheet which is one of my favorite patterns.

Silk Scarf Jewelry

I've been working on a new batch of scarf jewelry designs.  These ones are more suitable to hanging on a lighter organza or silk scarf.  I am really happy with these ones and the jewel tone colors go beautifully with the silk scarves that my friend Rosemarie dyes by hand.

I wish we lived closer to our niece as she makes such a gorgeous model for our jewelry.  It is always so much nicer to see a piece worn on an actual live person instead of a mannequin.

Buttons in Gold

The wholesale part of our clay has been keeping us busier these days with two more stores added that are now selling our beads, buttons and shawl pins.  One thing we enjoy the most is the freedom we have to create new designs all the time so we do not get bored with making the same piece over and over again.  We are also "tailoring" our work to each store so they all have certain items that are unique only to them and the  same items are not repeated everywhere.


Here are some samples of textured buttons in gold.  We like to use a variety of textures or stamps that lend themselves well to using mica powders, inks, pigments or acrylic paints.  You might recognize a few of the patterns from Helen Breil's texture sheets which I love working with.

More New Buttons

I finished up some more buttons in a variety of colors.  These were all done using the Conga Line texture sheet by Helen Breil.  These should be listed in our Art Fire studio and Etsy shop within the next few days.

Here is a sweater that I replaced the original buttons with some new textured ones.  Now people compliment me on the sweater which they didn't before.

Designer Pieces for Myself

I'm taking a break away from the salmon for a bit and hoping we put enough stock out the other day to last until the 24th of October.  If it doesn't, then I guess I will be back to making more which I don't mind at all.

One of the greatest perks of being a clay-jewelry artist is that I get to go shopping for new clothes and then make as many jewelry and accessory pieces for myself as I want that match so I can show them off!  I'm really into the matchy thing and so when I create a piece for myself I have to make a whole set that coordinates which usually includes a pendant or beaded necklace, earrings, watch bracelet and hair barrette.  I might even make matching buttons for a blouse or sweater.  I'm working on some new belt designs as well which I will show you later when they are finished.

Here are two sets I've completed over the last couple of months.   The pendant and earrings in this set were from my first attempt with using Helen Breil's Radiating Lines Tutorial.  When I created the texture sheet for this one I used a finding for the centre impression and then did the remaining part free-hand with my sculpting tool.  I had some rivioli crystals I purchased for these new designs and of course had to use a green one since it is my favorite color!

I have a rich velour jacket in a deep teal that sets everything off perfectly.  The beads on the watch bracelet are the double-sided textured in the Funky Swirl design combined with my own pearl rondelles in teal.

I used the Bezel part of the CaBezel moulds for the pendant and bracelet links in this set and then filled the centers with textured pieces accented with mica powders and Swarovski crystals.

As you can see,  I love working with all kinds of textures and mica powders and so both sets were made using these.  I usually use the new prototype designs I make for myself as a springboard for our pieces to sell and so I'm now working on some new sets for our Christmas shows that will be starting soon.  Will hopefully manage to have some pieces listed in our ArtFire studio as well.

Some pens for autographing....

I finished covering some new pens the other day.  They are a twist style pen that I ordered from Boston Craftworks where they go together quite easily without the need for a pen press or other such tools.

I love covering pens and these were not only fun to clay with but feel really good when they are put together and have a nice weight to them.  The first set below I used the same "seamless" method I use to make my textured tube beads and my fan/light pulls.  I discovered it works great for covering pens as well!  I'm writing a tutorial for this and should be published in a few weeks.

There has been a lot of talk on the net lately about covering pens.  Surfingcat did some experiments with different pens that are good and not so good with claying and melt when heated.  Then Angela from Crafty Goat created an interesting blog post on the top four pens she discovered are oven safe.  I really like the Bic retractable one and think I might try some of those next for a more affordable and practical type pen to sell to replace the typical stick ones.

Some New Buttons

I was commissioned to make some buttons for some sofa cushions last week.  I had some fun making them and experimenting with mica powders and inks and love how they turned out with a sort of antique-patina finish.  I got carried away and made a few and so the extra ones are now for sale in our ArtFire Studio.